Don't try this alone! — three tests for the will to breathe

The sixth paper of the series After Buteyko, following No. 5, Belcanto for the sick; the series begins with No. 1, The invisible breath. The exhalation on lying down has been in the textbooks for seventy years as a change of lung volume, and the inhalation on standing up has been measured as a fall in carbon dioxide; none of the studies asked what either feels like. Both happen before the will: the breath that is running at the time carries the air, and the will notices afterwards. The paper describes a state of plain noticing and three tests that put the will in the way of these movements so that the collision can be felt; each closes the airway at one point of the breath, changes the posture and opens it again. The tests are unpleasant. The nervous system treats air hunger and interference with breathing as an emergency; dizziness and fainting are possible, and a fall from standing is the real danger, so the safety rules stand before the tests. The shift in lung volume does not depend on belief, and the sensations it produces are tied to quantities that can be measured. Against Buteyko's breathe less, move more, the paper sets move less, in the sense of moving smarter: small, slow movements with the diaphragm working behind a wall that holds.